Method of preventing bank-notes



0. D. SEROPYAN.

METHOD or PREVENTING BANK NOTES, 620., FROM BEING GOUNTERFEITED. No.14,069.

PATENTED JAN. 8, 1856.

C. D. SEROPYAN, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

METHOD OF PREVENTING BANK-NOTES, 840., FROM BEING COUNTERFEITED.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1 1,069, dated January8, 1856.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHRISTOPHER- D. SE- ROPYAN, of New Haven,iu thecounty of New Haven, in the State of Connecticut, have invented a newand improved mode of preventing counterfeiting bank-notes, drafts, andother papers representing value by photographic process, by transferringon lithographic stone, or by anastatic printingi. 0., preventingbanknotes, drafts, and other papers representing value from beingcounterfeited by the abovementioned three different processesviz.,photographic, transferring, and anastatic processes; and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full and exact description thereof,reference being had to the specimens accompanying this application.

The nature of my invention consists in using oil-colored paper forbank-notes, drafts, and all other papers representing value, andprinting them with indigo-ink, or an ink which would equally reflect ortransmit the chemical rays of light, and which is equally or morefugitive than the color of the paper itself, so that when an attempt ismade to copy the bank-note by photographic process there will not beproduced a. distinct copy of the said bank-note. In order, therefore, tocopy the same the color of the said bank-note must be removed by somebleaching reagent. This cannot be done without destroying the vignettesand the let tering of the said bank-note, so that there will be leftnothing to copy. Again, bank-notes and drafts printed on oil-coloredpaper cannot be transferred upon a lithographic stone, for when the inkof the bank-note is loosened by potash or some other alkali the color ofthe paper will also be loosened and transferred upon the lithographicstone, and thus the vignettes and the lettering of the bank-note will beefi'aced, so that there will be left nothing to copy. Again, bank-notesand drafts printed on oil-colored paper cannot be copied by anastaticprinting, for when the bank-notes and drafts are laid upon the zinc, andwhen the proper acid is applied upon the back of the bank-note in orderto act upon the zinc through those parts of the bank-note where there'isno ink of the vignettes and that of the lettering, and thus produce thecopy of the said bank note upon the zinc plate will be prevented;

for the printers varnish or the boiled linseedoil of the color of thepaper will protect the other parts of the bank-note where there is noink of the vignettes and of the lettering. In

order, therefore, to be able to produce the copy of the bank-note uponthe zinc plate, the print ers varnish or the boiled linseed-oil of thecolor of the paper must first be removed by potash or by some otherreagent; but this cannot be done without removing the varnish or theboiled linseed-oil of the ink also; and thus when the acid is appliedupon the back of the bank-note it will act upon the zinc plate uniformlyall over and produce no copy on the zinc plate. Therefore, from what hasbeen stated it is evident that the combined action of the oil-coloredpaper and the fugitive ink will prevent bank-notes, drafts, and allother papers representing value from being counterfeited by photographicprocess, by the process of transferring upon lithographic stone, or bythe process of anastaticprinting.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe my mode of manufacturing bank-notes, drafts, andother papers representing value.

I use different oil-colored papers. They are red, pink, orange, yellow,green, gray, and light-indigo colors. These may be prepared by firsttaking the different coloring substances and grinding them fine with theprinters varnish or boiled linseed-oil, and print the color uniformlythus prepared upon the bank-note paper by lithographic process; or takeconinon bank-note paper colored in the ordinary way, or not colored atall, sized or not, and' print upon it by the same process a filni of theprinters varnish or boiled linseed-oil, and thus the oil will permeatethrough the paper, being sized or unsized, and protect the color of thepaper from being acted upon by the bleaching reagents, and also preventthe acids from acting through the paper. The ink I use to print thebank-notes and drafts with is indigo, or some other organic or metallicsubstance which will reflect or transmit the chemical rays of light, aswell as the color of the paper, and that is equally or more fugitivethan the color of the paper. These coloring substances, out of which theprinting-ink is to be made, are also ground fine in the printers varnishor boiled tion of the oil-colored paper and the fugitive ink, whichproduces the desired result, and not the oil-colored paper alone withoutthe fugitive ink, nor the fugitive ink alone Without the oil-coloredpaper, but the protecting power resulting out of the combination of theoilcolored paper and the fugitive ink, or any other substantially thesame, and which will produce the intended efi'ect.

CHRISTOPHER D. SEROPYAN. lVitnesses GEORGE E. JACKSON, FRANCIS MILLER.

